dome.presidentobamatonightvowing support, saying israel has a right to defend itself, while at the same time, saying a ramp up in military activity in gaza, a ground war, would be bad for both sides. we have a team in the region covering the middle east on the brink. christiane an may upon and matt gutman in israel. we begin tonight with alex marquardt in gaza city. alex? >> reporter: good evening, david. this was the deadliest day in gaza since this escalation began. in one incident, 11 people were killed, almost all of them from a single family. this as palestinian militants continue firing rockets into israel, the military says almost 1,000 of them so far. the thick smoke of the israeli air strike in the middle of the most densely populated places on earth. this is the house that was hit. it has now completely collapsed, and it really is chaos around here. two bulldozers, emergency crews, really anybody around, digging through the rubble trying to find anybody who survived. the israeli military was hashgting ah ha has rocket maker and hit a house that wasn't his. those de